The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1887-08-03
TO study law, where an tine nnKs OF the
| chain are in The hardt

TO study law, where All tine INKS OF the
chain are in the hand.
What are our departed Christian friends
who in this world had their Joy IN the
healing art doing now? Busy at their
old business. No sickness in heaven, but
plenty of sickness on earth, plenty of
wounds in the different parts of Gods
dominion to be healed and to be medi-
Gated. You cannot understand why that
patient got well after all the skillful doc
tors of New York and Brooklyn had said
he must die. Perhaps Abercrombie
touched him-Abercrombie who, after
many years doctoring the bodies and
the souls of people in Scotland. went up
to God In 1874. Perhaps Abercrombie
touched him.
should not wonder If my old friend
DR.. John Brown, who died in Edinburgh
John Brown, the author of ''Rab and
His Friends '-John Brown, who was as
humble Christian as he was skillful
physician and world renowned autnor-I
should not wonder if he had been back
again and again to see some of his old
patients. Those who had their Joy in
healing the sickness and the woes of earth,
gone up to heaven, are come forth again
for benignant medicament.
But what are our friends who found
their chief joy in conversation and In
sociality doing now? In brighter CONVEX
sation there and in grander sociality.
What a place to visit in, where your
next door neighbors are kings and queens.
You yourselves kingly and queenly. LII
they want to know more particularly
about the first Paradise, they have only
to go over to ask Adam. If they want to
know how the sun and the moon halted,
they have only to go over and ask Joshua.
If they want to know how the storm
pelted Sodom, they have only to go over
and ask Lot. If they want to know
more about the arrogance of Hannah,
they have only to go over and ask
Mordecai. If they want TO know how
the Red sea boiled when it was cloven,
they have only to go over and ask Moses.
If they want to know the particulars
about the Bethlehem advent, they have
only to 90 over and ask the serenading
angels who stood that Christmas night
In the balconies of crystal. If they want
to know more of the particulars of the
crucifxion, they have only to go over
and ask those who were personal specta-
tors while the mountains crouched and
the heavens got black in the face at the
spectacle. If they want TO know more
about the sufferings of the Scotch Cove
nanters, they have only to go over and
ask Andrew Melville. If they want to
know more about the old time revivals
they have only to go over and ask White
field, and Wesley, and Livingston, and
L I1xz n
what place to visit in.
If eternity were one minute shorter it
would not be long enough for such soci-
ality. Think of our friends who in this
world were passionately fond of flowers
turned into paradise Think of our
friends who were very fond of raising
superb fruit turned into the orchard
where each tree has twelve kinds of fruit
at once, and bearing the fruit all the
year round!
What are our departed Christian
friends doing in heaven, those who on
earth found their chief joy in the Gospel
ministry? They are visiting their old
congregations.
Most of those ministers have got their
people around them already. When
get to heaven-as by the grace of God ]
am destined to go to that place. will
come and see you all. Yea, l will come
to all the people to whom l have admin
istered in the gospel, and to the millions
of souls to whom, through the kindness
of the printing press, am permitted tc
preach every week in this land and in
other lands-letters coming from New
Zealand and Australia, and uttermost
naFtc Of ha orth % 1x-all
nakions, telling me of the souls / have
helped-I will visit them all. l give
them fair notice. Our departed friends
of the ministry engaged in that delectable
entertainment now.
But what are our departed Christian
friends who in all departments of useful
ness were busy, finding their chief joy in
doing good-what are they doing now
Going right on with the work. John
Howardavisiting dungeons; the dead wo-
men of northern and southern battle fields
still abroad looking for the wounded
George Peabody still watching the poor
Thomas Clarkson still looking after the
enslaved-all of those who did good OF
earth buster since death than before.
The tombstone not the terminus but
the starting post. What are our de
parted Christian friends who found Their
chief Joy in studying God doing now
Studying God yet. No need of revela-
ton now, for unblanched they are
face to face. Now they can handle
the omnipotent thunderbolts Just as
a child handles the sword of a father
come back from victorious battle. They
have no sin, nor fear consequently.
Studying Christ, not through a revela-
lation, save the revelation of the scars,
that deep lettering which brings it all
up quick enough. Studying the Christ
of the Bethlehem caravansary, the Christ
of the awful massacre with its hemor-
rhage of head and hand and foot and
side-the Christ of the shattered mauso-
sun, the man, the God man, the man
God.
But harkl the bell of the cathedral
rings-the cathedral bell of heaven.
What is the matter now? There is
going to be great meeting in the temple.
Worshippers all coming through the
aisles. Make room for the conqueror.
Christ standing in the temple. AL
heaven gathering around Him. Those
who loved the beautiful come to look at
the Rose of Sharon. Those who loved
music come to listen to His voice. Those
who were mathematicians come to count
the years of His reign. Those who were
explorers come to discover the height and
the depth and the length and the
breadth of his love. Those who
had the military spirit on earth
sanctified and the military spirit in
heaven come to look at the captain of
their salvation. The astronomers come
to look at the morning star. The men of
the law come to look at Him who is the
judge of quick and dead. The men who
healed the sick come to look at Him who
was wounded for our transgressions.
All different, and different forever, in
many respects, yet all alike in admiration
for Christ, in worship for Christ, and all
alike in joining in the doxology. Unto
Him who washed us from our sins in his
own blood, and made us kings and priests
unto God, to Him be glory in the church
throughout all ages, world without end!'
Amen.
Good Qualities of the Spider.
Among the many things that summer
brings for one to enjoy is the spider. The
spider family is numerous, there being no
less than fifty tribes. All of them have
eight legs, with three joints in each, ter
minating in thin crooked claws. inter
viewed one yesterday, and the occasion
was SO impressive that it will long remain
green in memory. The one / had the
extreme pleasure of meeting had eight
eyes in the shape of a letter Y; ON the
front part of his head was pair of sharp
crooked claws or forceps, which stood
horizontally, and which, when not In
use, are hidden from view in little cases
beautifully adapted for their reception,
and in which they fold up like a clasp